RACE INQUIRY IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27097, 21 July 1953, Page 9

RACE INQUIRY IN BRITAIN

Police Guard On Two Horses (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 12.20 a.m.) LONDON, July 20. Police guarded two horses of almost identical markings at Epsom today while detectives continued their inquiries into one of the biggest betting coups ever attempted in Britain. The horses, the French two-year-olds, Francasal and Santa Amaro, were seized yesterday after Francasal’s sensational 10 to 1 win at the Bath races on Thursday. Bookmakers had clamoured for an immediate investigation, their suspicions aroused by the mysterious breakdown shortly before the race of the solitary telephone connecting the track with the outside world. Off-course backers had at the same time telephoned bookmakers in London and other cities with heavy start-ing-price credit bets on Francasal, which was an unknown outsider. Francasal’s win may cost the bookmakers around £250,000.

Payment of the winnings has, however, been temporarily suspended, pending the investigation. It was later alleged that a gang of men, dressed as Post Office engineers, in a truck which was painted like a Post Office truck, had cut the telephone line with an acetylene torch.